I LOVE HOUSTON

Hey y’all!  I’m back from Houston!  If you haven't yet been, you should definitely plan a trip.  There's so much to see and do and it was a blast.

Thanks, Katie, for lending me your beautiful cowboy hat!  Yeehaw!

 I went to my first rodeo held at Reliant Park,

watched mutton busting (similar to adults riding a bull except that mutton busting involves kids holding on to a lamb right out of the gate), saw Janet Jackson in concert, 

she looked great and so did her cleavage!

scored my first pair of cowboy boots, 

ate authentic Texas BBQ at Goode Company BBQ, 

Goode's had the longest line

5 different kinds of sausage on top of smoked turkey and brisket, with a side of beans, jalapeño cheese bread, and a deep fried meatball

deep fried bacon!

washed it down with some beer,

and discovered Frito Pie (thanks Liane and Raquel)! 

my version

The authentic version

When I yelped Goode Company BBQ, they had the most reviews and I was told it was one of the best BBQ restaurants in town.  So if you find yourself in Houston, that should be a good enough sales pitch to get you into Goode's. I do regret not having cornbread though.  What was I thinking?!  I guess I didn't exactly need more carbs after that Frito pie.  Or the deep fried bacon.

My goal now is to break in my gorgeous new cowboy boots, so I’ll be wearing them practically everyday.  And hopefully walking a LOT to burn off the extra weight I put on after that trip!  

M

MY LITTLE GARDEN

Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a full vegetable garden in my backyard. Thanks to my dad’s green thumb we had everything; grapes, blueberries, squash, rhubarb, tomatoes, snap peas, potatoes, zucchini, carrots, onions, peppers, strawberries, lettuce, corn, pumpkins—you name it, we had it. It was something I took for granted and now I really miss having. Unfortunately, I don’t have a big backyard so I have to make do with what apartment living offers me. A decent sized balcony.

As an avid Sunset Magazine reader, I have found myself glued to the gardening section the past couple of issues dreaming of what type of vegetables and flowers I would grow in my garden. I was pleasantly surprised to find all sorts of tips and tricks for gardening in small spaces on their website here. I was sold! I decided to start my own little garden on my balcony.

Saturday morning, I headed out to the nursery and became completely overwhelmed when I saw the amount of different plants, flowers and vegetables to choose from. Since I am really limited on space and since this will be my very first garden of my own…I wanted to keep things simple. I decided on tomatoes, an assortment of herbs, and some flowers. There were shelves and shelves of all sorts of different tomatoes with all different names so I called my dad for help. I learned there are two types of tomatoes, determinate and indeterminate. Determinate tomato varieties tend to reach a fixed height and ripen all their fruit in a short period of time. Indeterminate, also referred to as "vining" tomatoes, will continue to set and ripen fruit until killed off by frost. I went with an indeterminate variety called Sweet 100 which are a type of cherry tomato…the more tomatoes, the merrier! For my herbs, I decided on Rosemary, Cilantro, and Basil. As for flowers, I went with a Lavender plant, two Ranunculus plants, yellow Daisies, and Calendulas. This where I got stuck. I didn’t like any of the gardening pots the nursery had to offer, so I decided to go ahead with my purchase of all of the above plants and find my pots elsewhere.

To make a long story short, I still have not found any pots that I like! The Rose Bowl Flea Market is this coming Sunday, so I plan on trying out my luck there. You can almost make anything a garden pot, as long as you have a hole drilled in the bottom for proper drainage. So, I figure I can get pretty creative with this project…wish me luck!

Here’s a picture of all my pretty picks I brought home with me from the nursery.

R

WEEKEND RECIPES



ROASTED BEET SALAD

I never knew that making salad dressing was so simple until I saw someone whip up a vinaigrette in 3 minutes.  It was very impressive.  So I’d like to share with you all how easy it is to make the balsamic dressing for a beet salad I made last night. 

Balsamic Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3 Tablespoons thinly sliced or minced shallots

1 Tablespoon honey

salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

You can either throw all the ingredients into a blender, or you can whisk them together in a measuring cup or a glass bowl (metal bowls aren’t ideal since the metal whisk hitting the metal bowl can create a nasty metallic taste).  And that’s it!  You’ve just made a delicious salad dressing.

Now for the salad:

3 cups (roughly) baby spinach, or whatever greens you like

Balsamic Vinaigrette

6 orange wedges, skin off

1/4 avocado, sliced

dried currants or cranberries

sliced almonds, toasted

roasted beets, quartered, then cut into bite size pieces

goat cheese, crumbled

Roasting the beets will take about an hour.  You can place as many beets as you’d like in one batch, and one beet per person should suffice.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Rinse the dirt off the beets, then slice off the green stems completely, even taking off a bit of the top of the beet.  Also cut off the bottom of the beets (the tail like end) so they can sit flat on a cutting board.  Place the beets (whole with the skin on) onto a sheet of aluminum foil and season with a little salt and pepper.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Fold up the edges of the aluminum foil over the beets as if you’re enclosing the beets into a pocket.  Make sure the pocket is air tight, as this will keep the steam in and the beets moist when roasting.  Place on a baking pan or dish and into the oven they go.

After an hour, take the beets out of the oven and open the aluminum foil pocket carefully, as the hot steam will burn you!  Allow a cooling time of about 15 minutes so you can peel off the skin by hand.  The red beets stain, so you may want to use gloves or paper towels for this task.  After you’ve peeled and chopped them, mix a little of the balsamic vinaigrette onto the beets so you pre season them.  They are now ready to go!

Back to the salad.  Dress the greens with as much dressing as you like, then I suggest constructing your salad in the order written above, with goat cheese being the last ingredient that goes onto your plate.  This makes for a pretty salad which went well with my rotisserie chicken.

I’d also like to share that a rotisserie chicken at your neighborhood Pavilions or Ralphs is only $5.99!!!  At Bristol Farms and Whole Foods, that price jumps to $9.99.  Why must you, person in charge of pricing inventory at gourmet supermarkets, make your rotisserie chickens so much more expensive?

And let’s be honest, bottled salad dressings never taste as delicious as restaurant or freshly made dressings, so after I became confident in my dressing making abilities, I threw away all the Newman’s Own, Ken’s, Annie’s Naturals, and Kraft bottles in my fridge, and now I have so much more free space. If only I only knew how to make more room in my overstuffed closet! 

M

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THE  WEEKEND

I’m off to pack for a weekend in Houston where I’ll be going to my first ever rodeo with a big group of friends.  YEEHAW!  I may even buy a pair of authentic cowboy boots.  And I may have to have some BBQ as well!  I’m excited because this will be a weekend of firsts and my friends are flying in from all over the US.  I’m expecting to overeat and may even go for a hangover.  The flight back to LA on Sunday should be a real doozie.

M

GREEK YOGURT WITH POMEGRANATE AND HONEY

Reasons why this is my new favorite dessert/snack/breakfast

1. It’s healthy
2. It’s extremely easy to make
3. It tastes really good

Usually, after I finish dinner I want something light and sweet to snack on. Kettle corn, a scoop of ice cream, a cookie…these are the usual suspects as I’m really not a huge dessert person. Yes, I know yogurt with fruit and honey isn’t exactly a groundbreaking combination, but it’s something I usually only eat for breakfast. So, when I switched it in for dessert and added pomegranate seeds to the mix…it totally changed the way I feel about it. I LOVE IT.

Recipe:

4 servings

2 cups of Greek Yogurt

3/4 cup of pomegranate seeds

1 Braeburn apple (chopped)

1 ripe mango (chopped)

4 teaspoons of honey

Place ½ cup of greek yogurt in four separate bowls. Top each with 3 tablespoons of pomegranate seeds. Evenly divide the chopped mango and apple into the four bowls. Lightly drizzle a teaspoon of honey to top the fruit in each bowl. (add ½ teaspoon more if you like it extra sweet)

To really put it over the edge, place in the freezer for 5 minutes before serving! Enjoy!

R

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THE WEEKEND...

My plans for the weekend involve a vegetable garden. Now is the time to plant, right? I’m going to test out my thumb and see how green it is. Will let you know on Monday…

R

JUICY. PORK. DUMPLINGS.

Din Tai Fung Dumpling House is located in the San Gabriel Valley which is a little bit of a drive from Los Angeles, but oh so worth it! One thing I would recommend is definitely going at an “off” hour because there is almost always a long wait. In my opinion, the perfect time to go is around 3 on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It’s the perfect way to cap off the weekend.

This is why it is absolutely worth the drive: the Juicy Pork Dumplings. How they are able to pack so much flavor, tender pork, and warm broth into a tiny dumpling is a mystery to me. You have to eat the whole dumpling at once; otherwise you miss out on the best part…the explosion. I am talking about the party of flavor and textures that happens when you take your first bite. You don’t want to lose a drop of the warm broth which is why you want the whole dumpling inside your mouth when you bite down and that broth comes bursting out. (insert dirty joke here, Maya)

Other great dishes I tried: appetizer, shrimp & pork wanton soup, shrimp & pork shaomai, and steamed pork bun

Original location Taipei City, Taiwan.

R

WHY RECYCLING TASTES SO DELICIOUS

The great thing about spending so much time on a Sunday feast is that you can take a break from cooking until Wednesday and just heat up leftovers.  Of course, you can always find a decent place from where to order takeout, after all, it is LA.  But I like home cooking because nobody will put more love into your food than you will.   And who doesn’t love pancakes for breakfast??  I used the blini mix from Sunday for today’s breakfast.

For dinner last night (while Rachel was at her house dining on those mouthwatering Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings), I shredded up a duck leg, boiled some garganelli (similar to penne but more delicate and, in my opinion, tastier), tossed all of that in with the peppers, along with a thin slab of butter, sprinkled some parmesan and parsley, and voila, Pasta ala Leftovers!  I also made a simple salad with a lemon vinaigrette. 

And I’m embarrassed to disclose that I can eat the same thing for three, sometimes four days in a row.  The guy at the noodle place near my house knows my order before I even speak (he has caller I.D.), and I can hear in his voice the pleasure our little game of "guess what I'm going to order" gives him.  Should I be embarrassed and dial *67 next time?  Am I over thinking this?  

M

SWEET N SPICY

Let me paint a lovely picture for you….it’s Friday night, you are sitting in crazy traffic for over an hour in the middle of a horrible rainstorm to get to the airport. After finally getting through the delightful security line, you arrive at your gate. An hour passes reading a magazine and finally it’s about time to board the plane when you hear the last five words you want to hear at that moment; “YOUR FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELED.”

Yes, sadly my flight to Colorado was canceled due to weather conditions so I was not able to make my brother his first home cooked meal since returning from overseas. L The good news is I’m going to use my ticket to fly out in a couple weeks and visit him then. The other good news is I was able to attend Maya’s Oscar party and boy was I glad. The food was seriously on point. Smoked salmon and caviar blinis?! Yes please!!

Last night, I had a craving for something spicy and sweet, and found a terrific recipe to fulfill my craving here. Since my grill is currently out of gas, I made these spicy chicken wings in a nonstick pan on the stove. I adjusted the time to 40 minutes over medium heat, turning the chicken every 10 minutes. I also added some shrimp to mix things up. I cooked the shrimp for 2 minutes on each side until pink over medium heat. Finger lickin’ good! The glaze packs a spicy punch, but has a nice sweet tang so you don’t completely burn your mouth off. I am looking forward to trying these out on the grill as soon as I get my gas tank filled up! (I can be quite the procrastinator at times).

R

SUNNY AND WARM WITH A HIGH OF 68

This past weekend we lucked out with the most amazing weather.  The forecast called for a torrential downpour all weekend long, so when I awoke to birds chirping, I realized just how fortunate we are in Southern California.

After my morning latte, I called my girlfriend, Tracie, who was making hot toddies for the Oscar Party (at my house) and we did a quick change of plans with the drink menu.  Since the sun was out, she came up with this delicious recipe idea for a blended strawberry margarita using vodka, frozen Minute Maid lemonade, pineapple juice and frozen strawberries.  She garnished the drink with a slice of pineapple, then topped it off with champagne. It was tart and perfectly tropical and we all pretended for 5 minutes that we were on vacation.

While this delicious frozen drink kept us happy as we watched celebrities arrive to the Oscars, I ducked into the kitchen and assembled the Smoked Salmon with Crème Fraiche and Caviar onto blinis that I had made earlier in the day.  Everyone said it was their favorite part of the night.  I was very pleased if I may say so myself.

But I did a disservice to my guests, who fortunately weren't aware at the time, and to you, my readers, because this takes away any anticipation you may have had to hear about the other dishes I served, since my first course rocked everyone's world.  I understand if you want to click to another website now.

So the blinis were followed by a Pan Roasted Chicken with Sweet Sausage and Peppers that I’d found in Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc.  It’s truly a great book for all things rich and heavenly but you will spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  There’s a recipe for Soffritto (this is added into the peppers) that takes 5 hours to make.  Yes, much of the time is spent stirring the onions and tomatoes in oil on low heat, but it is so worth it.  The subtle complexity it brings to any dish will be what makes your guests wonder why your food always tastes so divine.  Obviously, I’d love to find a Soffritto-like recipe that isn't so high maintenance, yet tastes just as great.  Email me if you have one, PLEASE!  And because the Oscars are a fancy event, I decided to use duck instead of chicken and nobody seemed to mind.  The duck was so tender and juicy and the peppers were sweet and flavorful.  I'm so happy I have leftovers...

I also fed my guests Roasted Brussel Sprouts, along with Couscous w/ Currants and Toasted Slivered Almonds.  

For dessert (I forgot to take a picture and now there aren’t any cookies left) we had Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Ivy on Robertson Boulevard and some Vanilla Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberries.  A simple, yet extremely satisfying end to a long day of eating and drinking…which I don’t think a lot of celebrities did much of in the days leading up to the Oscars.  Except maybe Natalie Portman because she’s now eating for two (CONGRATULATIONS, Natalie, on your baby and your Oscar!).  But Jennifer Hudson…she obviously hasn’t been eating chocolate chip cookies...or much of anything.  But the girl looks good.  

Which I can't really say about Amy Adams' wardrobe/jewelry choice for the Oscars.  But she's great as an actress.  After all, she did star in Julie & Julia, one of my favorite movies revolving around food.  Coming in second place is Big Night starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub.  Stanley Tucci must be a big foodie since he co-wrote and co-directed the film.  Maybe he'd like to be a contributor on our blog someday...

M